Goma-2

Goma-2 was a type of high explosive manufactured for industrial use (chiefly mining) by Unión Española de Explosivos S.A.

It was a gelatinous, nitroglycol-based explosive widely used within Spain and exported abroad. It was used by ETA in the 1980s and 1990s.

There were two variants of Goma-2: Goma-2 EC and Goma-2 ECO. As of 2017, the manufacturer MAXAM Corp. S. L. has reformulated the Goma-type ammonia gelatine dynamites which are marketed worldwide under the new Riodin trade name.

Properties

Goma-2 explosive was a mixture of several chemicals:^[1]

• Ammonium nitrate - 60–70%
• Nitroglycol - 26–34%
• Nitrocellulose - 0.5–2%
• Dibutyl phthalate - 1–3%
• Fuels - 1–3%

As with other commercial blasting explosives, detonators were needed to initiate a detonation (usually a blasting cap # 8).

Terrorist use

Goma-2 ECO was the explosive that was used in the 2004 Madrid train bombings. Terrorist Jamal Ahmidan, also known as El Chino, bought the explosive illegally from a mine in northern Spain. It was also planned by the same cell that carried out the Madrid bombings to use the explosive to derail a high-speed train.^{[citation needed]} In 1973, about 80 kilograms of the explosive was used by ETA in Operation Ogro to assassinate Luis Carrero Blanco. The explosion was so powerful it threw Blanco's car over a five story building.^[2]